


the strength of willows

by laikaspeaks



Category: The Owl House (Cartoon)
Genre: Bullying, Character Study, F/F, Pre-Relationship, background Amity Blight/Luz Noceda
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-08
Updated: 2020-10-08
Packaged: 2021-03-08 04:42:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 828
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26899873
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/laikaspeaks/pseuds/laikaspeaks
Summary: Luz and Willow have a conversation about Amity. Just a little character study following the events of Understanding Willow.
Relationships: Amity Blight/Luz Noceda, Willow Park & Amity Blight, Willow Park & Luz Noceda
Comments: 2
Kudos: 102





	the strength of willows

Sitting waiting for Willow to finish tending to her various barely-magical plants gave Luz too much time to think. They didn't have any teeth or noxious clouds to distract her or anything. Even with the warm sunlight coming in through the big windows and the clamor of students taking care of more dangerous plants from the next greenhouse over, it wasn't enough to quiet her stupid brain. 

Luz let her head drop to the table and let out a long groan. Surprise surprise, that didn't do anything but make her forehead hurt.

"Something bothering you, Luz?" Willow chirped from the potting table. 

"I just wanna get Amity to like me. Why is that so hard?" 

The silence drew out just long enough for her to kick herself a few times. Fabulous.

"Why do you even want to be friends with Amity so bad?" Willow said finally. Her voice had lowered to that scratchy, cracked sound that meant she was about to cry, and Luz knew she couldn't hide her face in her crossed arms forever. She finally lifted her head and felt her heart drop to somewhere in the center of the earth.

Luz could be pretty dense sometimes but she wasn't outright stupid. Willow was at least 40% rage probably, and it wasn't like she could miss that. Somehow it was different when it wasn't with her eyes all glowy and her vines bitch-slapping any poor sap who got in her way like a witchy Poison Ivy. This was just... Willow. With her face struggling with something between anger and tears, looking so much like her memory-self that it made Luz want to retreat into her hoodie forever. 

"I don't know." Luz muttered into the neck of her hoodie, twisting the drawstring around her fingers until her skin paled, wishing she could roll back this conversation back to before she shoved her foot in her mouth. "I just -"

Willow waited, her expression unreadable. Fair... fair. Amity and Willow might have some tentative truce, but it didn't mean they were _okay_ okay. It just made what Luz was feeling all the more complicated, to be honest. 

"She's just... so weird, and that's coming from _me_. I just wanna know what she's thinking, I guess. I wanna understand her better." It was so hard to put into words, and that was part of what made it so frustrating. She felt like she could talk about it for hours and she would still just be running circles around whatever was drawing her to Amity. It was almost worse than Amity's on-and-off again friendliness. Like she couldn't decide if she wanted to push Luz away or - it was just confusing. And not in a fun way, like so many things on the Boiling Isles were. "I just feel like she's lonely, and I wish I could fix that." 

Willow sighed, and Luz half expected a well-deserved angry outburst. Instead she combed her fingers through the silvery fluff on one of her weird herbs as though it were a cat, and her eyes dropped to avoid Luz' gaze. "Yeah. I get it."

"R-really?"

"Yeah I mean... Amity and her friends used to treat me like garbage. Worse than, maybe. And it used to make me so mad!" Willow's lips pressed tightly together, and she reached up to rub roughly at her eyes, nearly knocking her glasses off. "But now when I look back it makes so much sense... all the times she tried to get them to back off without - without getting in trouble with her parents." Willow sighed. "I'm still mad, but... also I _can't_ be mad, because she was hurting all by herself too."

"...Yeah." Luz unwound her finger from the string of her hoodie and started the process over again. 

"So it's okay if you wanna be friends with her too." Willow's hand settled on Luz' shoulder, and when she looked up Willow's smile was only a little damp. "Really. I don't know if I'm ready to trust her again... if I _can_ trust her again. But I really do want her to be happy. I want you both to be happy."

Why did that make Luz' heart pinch in her chest? She felt like Willow brushed dangerously against the thing Luz couldn't find the words for yet. Like she was close to some kind of answer and it was only Luz left in the dark. Luz stood up so quickly she nearly knocked her chair over, and tugged Willow into a hug, nearly crushing the weird soft plant between them before Willow set it aside to squeeze Luz close. Willow really did give the best hugs. She was probably the best friend - no, the best _person_ that Luz knew. She didn't know if she would be able to be that nice to someone who bullied her that way. "Thanks. You're a good friend, Willow. The best." 

Willow laughed, that sad creak almost gone from her voice. "Anytime, Luz."


End file.
